Pinkerton Manor

A few nights ago I started my first freehand embroidery. It’s an owl for my Nanna, but I didn’t have time to finish it before I saw her. I’m going to finish it off when I get chance in the next few days and post it. I also need to decide whether to make it into a brooch or make a little frame for it. I’m thinking I would really like to do some more sketchy freehand embroidery too.

Speaking of sketches, I found this while cleaning out the spare room. It’s hard to believe that it’s actually eight years old. I remember doing it and everything. I was so annoyed that we didn’t get more male models. Drawing women is great, but variety is the spice of life. As soon as I have some kind of reliable income sorted out I’m going to go to life drawing classes. Drawing from photographic references just isn’t the same.

Also, I made cupcakes! Vanilla rose cupcakes. I added rose nectar as the liquid in vanilla cupcake batter. The rose flavour was very subtle and I really want to experiment more with it. But everyone seems to have liked them anyway. Next I think I will make chilli chocolate cupcakes with peanut butter frosting or maybe Ming‘s beetroot cupcakes. Hoorah for cupcakes!

So, I have a few posts drafted that I haven’t been entirely happy with and I’m making it my goal to have at least one of them finished over the weekend. I’m writing a sticky note to remind myself and everything!

You would think that with my newfound healthy eating habits I would be feeling on top of the world, but unfortunately I’ve been sneezing non-stop for the last few hours.  I’m really hoping it’s just hay fever or something, but I have had a sore throat on and off for the past week or so.  My fingers are firmly crossed that it just goes away.

Todays outfit is once again utilising leggings to extend the wear of some summer clothing.  I really, really love leggings.  I desperately want some colours other than black though and I never seem to find them (or when I do they just don’t suit me – like the electric blue ones I fell in love with last year).  So, if the clothing gods are reading this, I’d like some brown and/or grey leggings that suit me please.

The details.  Top – eBay, cardigan – thrifted, shorts – Target, leggings – Big W, scarf as belt – some boutique that was closing down, shoes – Big W.

And if you thought the post title was just about how I was feeling under the weather, get ready for some pun action…

Oh yeah, there are seeds on my muffins!  Pepitas and sunflower seeds sprinkled over vegemite on English muffins.  With a side of pear.  Apparently if you eat seeds with fruit it slows the release of sugars.  Plus bonus protein.  Oh, and it also tasted really good too.

Dinner last night looked like this.  Originally I was going to make a vegetable curry with rice, but I changed my mind at the last minute and it became ‘Italian’ vegetable stew.

In it was sweet potato (a ‘superfood’), potato, carrot, red lentils, spinach (another ‘superfood’), tomato, mixed beans, ‘chicken’ stock, dried herbs (basil, oregano, rosemary and parsley), garlic and tomato paste.  Slow cooked for two hours.

And a side of brown rice with added barley, split peas and yellow lentils.  The combination of beans, lentils and grains means all this contains whole protein.  Delicious and healthy.

Lately I’ve been thinking and reading a lot about eating healthier.  I’ve lost muscle mass, put on weight and my arthritis has flared up since I moved back to Brisbane and I think it has a lot to do with changes in my eating habits.  I’ve been a vegetarian for over ten years, but I’ve never really put much thought into a healthy vegetarian diet – I just replaced meat with meat alternatives and that was about it.

Lately though, I’ve been thinking more and more about what I should (and shouldn’t) be eating.  The most helpful resource I’ve found so far is The Vegetarian Society’s V-Healthy website.  I’ve also been reading up a little on ‘super foods’ and I’m finding that a lot of them are foods that I love and eat a fair bit anyway.  Yay me!

So, today for lunch I had wholemeal toast with hommus (which I now know is a whole protein) and tomato (high in lycopene) and a handful of dried apricots (an excellent source of Vitamin A).  Right now I’m enjoying a cup of tea with honey to stave off my sweet tooth cravings.  And dinner will be a vegetable and bean curry with brown rice (to which I’m adding a little barley and lentil mix).

And my outfit kind of matched my lunch!

Cardigan – Colorado, dress – Ice, leggings – Big W, scarf – thrifted, espadrilles - Target.

Breakfast:  Scones with butter and Vegemite.

I know some people will think that is weird or even gross, but I think it’s delicious.  I’ve always loved sweet and salty flavour combinations.  Like peanut butter M&Ms – soooo good – or McDonalds fries dipped in soft serve.  I can remember being told off as a kid for putting Vegemite on my pikelets and (this one is a secret.. so shh!) I sometimes put salt on my ice-cream.

Wednesday is Farmers Market day in Brisbane city and today I went along with my camera.  I love going to markets.  I’ll go along to fresh food markets, street markets, flea markets… any kind of market really.  I just love the atmosphere.  Today, though, it was all about lovely fresh food.  I went with a couple of friends, Dan and Tash.  Tash is a chef and food blogger and I absolutely adore her enthusiasm for all things edible.  On her advice, I walked away with three delicously plump vanilla pods which smell incredible.  And I took a whole bunch of photos.  Enjoy!

And what better way to end a day at the markets than with a delicious iced tea.

I’ve been a little quiet lately.  Mostly because I’ve been busy.  I went to Melbourne a few weeks ago for a holiday and it was hands down the best week of my life so far.  Hands down!  I’d never been there before, but people had always told me that I would like it.  They weren’t wrong.  I want to live there.  I met up with my ex boyfriend from Brisbane and we shared a hotel room for the week.  We’ve kept in contact a lot since I left Brisbane and we’re very good friends.  Even though we’d been a couple for nearly three years, Melbourne was our first real holiday together.  Anyway, here are some photos before I explain more.

Matt in front of Flinders Street Station

Lord of the Fries

I think that’s a theatre or something

Bikes we hired for the day

Church we stopped to look at on our ride

Matt with his bike

Cupcakes from my new favourite place, Little Cupcakes

Matt at Little Cupcakes

The cupcakes were delicious

I didn’t get nearly as many photos as I would have liked since I kept leaving my camera in the hotel room.  Sometimes because I had the dumb and others because I was achey and couldn’t be bothered carrying it.  We ate so much amazing food, my favourites being Little Cupcakes and Soul Mama.  We went to Soul Mama for a date.  It was the greatest date ever.  After we ate what was easily one of the best meals ever we headed over to Luna Park.  We went on the Scenic Railway and laughed so hard it hurt, then Matt played a sideshow game and won me a purple snake softie which I wore around my neck afterwards when we went for cake in Acland Street.

The other highlight for me was riding a bike.  I hadn’t ridden a bike since I was a kid and I was a little worried that between the arthritis in my back and the problems I have with my knees I might have a bit of trouble.  But I desperately wanted to do it and Matt was incredibly supportive.  We rode along the river for a while, but my knees started to hurt so we decided to cut through some suburbs in order to get to Abbotsford Convent.  We walked our bikes for a bit and then when we came to a slight downhill run Matt convinced me to get back on.  I had the time of my life!  We rode the rest of the way with no problems at all.  On the way back to the city I even rode in a bike lane on the road.  On the road!  I really want to buy a bike now.

In the weeks since I’ve been back I’ve done a lot of thinking and Matt and I have done a lot of talking.  I’m moving back to Brisbane on the 31st of December.  Moving back in with Matt, but we’re taking things slowly and seeing what happens.  I’m planning on going back to uni to finish my creative writing degree mid year and I’m going to put a lot more effort into the blog and my various creative endeavours.  I’m so happy and enthusiastic about life at the moment.  It’s fantastic.  I’m glad I moved to Canberra even though it hasn’t lasted that long.  I’ve spent lots of time with Mum and Louie and Matt and I have both grown and learned to communicate with one another much better.  Plus I’ve saved some money while I’ve been here so I can afford to go for my learners licence next year and get driving lessons.  I’d still rather a bicycle though, but I can probably afford that too.  Yay!

T-shirt – Maddisson
Cardigan – Hand me down from Mum
Jeans – Hot Options

I’ve just been hanging out at home today doing washing and tidying up a bit. When I go out to do my groceries later I’ll probably throw my Volleys on.

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I totally did put my Volleys on and I went to the local Asian grocery store for the first time. Holy mackerel! So many vegetarian fake meat options! So much tofu! So many different spices and sauces and tasty, tasty things! If I’d known it was so awesome I’d have cashed up before I walked in. I ended up buying a bag of frozen vegetarian ‘tuna’ and some dehydrated TVP ‘beef’ strips. I’ve been a vegetarian for over ten years and I still miss tuna. One of my favourite meals growing up was tuna and mayo warmed through and served on toast. I tried the mashed up chickpeas thing, but seriously who actually thinks that tastes like tuna?

Anyway, I’m going to give this frozen stuff a go this week and Louie has kindly agreed to help me review it. We may even make fake meat reviews a regular blogging feature. I did see fake shrimp today too. Oooh yeeeaaah!

Oh, also, I made this last night:

Yesterday was my first bread baking adventure.  Sort of.

We have a bread maker and although it does the job, it’s a little boring.  So,  rather than spice things up with a totally handmade bread experience, I cheated a bit and set the bread maker to dough.  What a success!  I halved the dough and made a small loaf and a small cheese and herb twist.  The loaf is indeed small, as I underestimated the size of our loaf tin, but Lord Adlington pointed out that it’s “like toast soldiers without having to cut them.”  Never mind the loaf though.  Check this out.

All I did was make three long sausages of dough, spread grated cheese and dried herbs over them, and then twisted them up, brushed some olive oil over it and put some more cheese and herbs on top.  Easy as pie.  Or bread even.  We ate it for dinner with pesto gnocchi and the whole meal was delicious.  We both ate way too much and didn’t even have room for the mocha fudge icecream and dates that Lord Adlington made (more on that later).

I am absoltely making more bread like that.